All Our Kin is a Connecticut-based, nationally recognized nonprofit organization that trains, supports, and sustains community child care providers in order to ensure that children and families have the foundation they need to succeed in school and in life.

Our vision: all children, regardless of where they live, their racial or ethnic background, or how much money their parents earn, will begin their lives with all the advantages, all the tools, and all the experiences that we, as a society, are capable of giving them.

At All Our Kin, we find the caregivers reaching our youngest, most vulnerable children: women in low-income communities who are committed to giving children high-quality early learning experiences in home-based settings. We invest in these caregivers, supporting them in becoming skilled early childhood educators, and creating sustainable programs that will serve families for years to come.

All Our Kin trains and supports over 400 parents and educators each year, who in turn serve over 2,400 children, across four Connecticut cities - New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, and Norwalk - and adjacent communities. Through All Our Kin’s programs, child care professionals succeed as business owners; working parents find stable, high-quality care for their children; and children gain an educational foundation that lays the groundwork for achievement in school and beyond.

At A Glance

Year of Incorporation1999

Organization's type of tax exempt statusPublic Supported Charity

Organization received a competitive grant from the community foundation in the past five yearsYes

Leadership

CEO/Executive DirectorMs. Jessica Sager

Board Chair Paige MacLean

Board Chair Company AffiliationVice President of Strategic Partnerships, Achievement First

Financial Summary

Projected Revenue$3,424,101.00

Projected Expenses$3,145,136.00

Statements

Mission

All Our Kin is a Connecticut-based, nationally recognized nonprofit organization that trains, supports, and sustains community child care providers in order to ensure that children and families have the foundation they need to succeed in school and in life.

Our vision: all children, regardless of where they live, their racial or ethnic background, or how much money their parents earn, will begin their lives with all the advantages, all the tools, and all the experiences that we, as a society, are capable of giving them.

At All Our Kin, we find the caregivers reaching our youngest, most vulnerable children: women in low-income communities who are committed to giving children high-quality early learning experiences in home-based settings. We invest in these caregivers, supporting them in becoming skilled early childhood educators, and creating sustainable programs that will serve families for years to come.

All Our Kin trains and supports over 400 parents and educators each year, who in turn serve over 2,400 children, across four Connecticut cities - New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, and Norwalk - and adjacent communities. Through All Our Kin’s programs, child care professionals succeed as business owners; working parents find stable, high-quality care for their children; and children gain an educational foundation that lays the groundwork for achievement in school and beyond.

Background

Connecticut
and, indeed, our nation face an acute child care crisis. In Connecticut alone,
nearly 20,000 children who need care lack access to licensed care slots. In New
Haven, there is just one licensed toddler slot for every eight infants. And in
Bridgeport, for every one hundred children under the age of three, there are
only 11.6 child care slots.

Connecticut’s limited existing care is incredibly costly. In fact, the average cost of full-time care for one infant in Connecticut is equivalent to 15% of the median family income. Adding a preschool-age child brings that cost to a formidable 27% of median family income. Worst of all, most child care is of poor quality. Less than 50% of child care programs nationwide provide “good” quality care to children, and only 8% provide “excellent” care.

In these conditions, family child care providers – both licensed and unlicensed – play a crucial role as the educators of our youngest, most vulnerable children. The majority of infants and toddlers are cared for in family child care settings, and children with socioeconomic risk factors are the most likely to be in family child care arrangements.

However, despite the important work family child care providers do for children and families, they are systematically overlooked and devalued. As a result, the majority of family child care programs are under-resourced and under-equipped. Working in their homes, caring for children 10-12 hours a day, providers are isolated from other educators and from opportunities for education and advocacy. Consequently, only 9% of family child care programs provide quality learning experiences for children.

In response, All Our Kin invests in family child care providers at every stage of their development, from parents and caregivers to professional educators and businesspeople. All Our Kin’s programs transform the quality of care in family child care programs, giving children the early learning experiences that they need and deserve. All Our Kin is increasing the number and quality of child care choices available to working families throughout the region, while ensuring that young children have the early learning experiences that will prepare them for success in school and in life. At the same time, All Our Kin helps providers make better lives for themselves, through increased revenues and opportunities to join a community of early childhood education professionals.

Impact

All Our Kin increases the quality of family child care. Findings from a rigorous external evaluation examining All Our Kin’s impact on program quality indicate statistically significant differences in quality between All Our Kin and non-All Our Kin providers: All Our Kin providers score over 50% higher on research-based measures of quality than non-All Our Kin providers; and All Our Kin providers score even higher in areas that affect children’s learning outcomes most. Additionally, a study by the University of Connecticut found that over 50% of the providers licensed through All Our Kin go on to complete Child Development Associate credentials or associate’s degrees in early childhood education.

All Our Kin increases the supply of licensed family child care in the community. Between 2000 and 2011, Connecticut lost nearly 34% of its family child care programs. This translates into 8,100 fewer child care spaces for Connecticut’s families. In New Haven, the story is very different. Thanks to All Our Kin’s efforts, the number of licensed family child care programs increased by 74% in New Haven during the same period. The result: more available, affordable quality choices for children and families.

All Our Kin has significant impacts on workforce development. In a 2011 study by the University of Connecticut’s Center for Economic Analysis, All Our Kin graduates reported earning between $20,000 and $25,000 per year, with an average income of approximately $23,000 per year; this is 10.4% more, on average, than the average wage for industry counterparts in New Haven. Fifty-five percent had been able to pay down debt, 42% had opened a savings account, and 31% had moved to a larger apartment or house. And each newly-licensed provider made it possible for four to five families to enter the workforce. The combination of the program’s impact on parents and providers resulted, according to the study, in $15-$20 of macroeconomic benefits for every dollar invested.

Needs

1. Funding for direct services in greater New Haven. Although All Our Kin's model is gaining attention across the state, it continues to be a challenge for the organization to fund its high-touch services to family child care providers in greater New Haven.

2. Funding for key staff. All Our Kin requires funding to attract and retain the organization's most valuable asset: highly-qualified, culturally sensitive staff deeply knowledgeable about both child development and adult learning.

4. Improved technology for All Our Kin. All Our Kin would benefit enormously from updated technology, both hardware and software. This would make it possible for All Our Kin to track results more effectively and for staff in the field to record and document their work more efficiently.

5. Improved technology for All Our Kin's family child care providers. With increased access to and understanding of computers, internet, etc., All Our Kin's family child care providers could communicate better with All Our Kin, with each other, and with the broader early childhood community, and their businesses would run more effectively as well.

CEO Statement

All Our Kin was founded on the belief that all children deserve access to high-quality early learning opportunities. We began the program because we saw parents forced to choose between their families’ economic survival and their children’s safe, healthy development. These parents were struggling to enter the workforce without any decent child care options available to them. As we worked with these parents in our child care collaborative, training them to become early childhood educators themselves, we came to see that our commitment to educational equity required us to expand our mission to encompass all providers struggling to care for low-income children. Today, we serve over 400 caregivers, who in turn are providing higher-quality care to over 2,400 children in our community. --Jessica Sager and Janna Wagner

All Our Kin serves a diverse group of low-income parents and providers in New Haven and surrounding towns; increasingly, we are becoming a regional presence in New Haven county. In addition, we have expanded to Bridgeport, which is, like New Haven, a high-poverty city in a wealthy state. Most recently, All Our Kin expanded to Stamford, Norwalk, and adjacent communities. Increasingly, communities and agencies throughout Connecticut seek to learn from and build on All Our Kin’s best practices.

Family, friend and neighbor caregivers
provide much of the daily child care to families in low-income neighborhoods. Through
the Tool Kit Licensing Program, a collaboration with the Connecticut Children’s
Museum, All Our Kin provides materials, mentorship and support to help these unlicensed
caregivers meet health and safety standards, fulfill state licensing
requirements, and become part of a professional community of child care
providers. When a child care provider becomes licensed by the state, we know
that the program meets health and safety standards and operates under state
supervision. The result: more children spend the day in safe, healthy settings.
Licensing is also transformative for providers. Their earnings increase; they
gain pride and professionalism; and they are able to serve more children, and
serve them better, with the equipment and training they need to provide safe,
educational child care.

When a child care provider becomes
licensed by the state, we know that the program meets health, safety, and
quality standards. As a result, more children spend their critical early years in safe, healthy
settings, and more parents can go to work confident in the knowledge that their
children are well-cared for. The licensing process is also transformative for
providers, with enormous impacts on their earning potential, their pride and
professionalism, and their capacity to serve the community. To date, 358 providers, with the capacity to serve over 2,100 children, have become licensed
through the program.

As Connecticut Voices for Children reports, "projects like these which target family child care providers reach a segment of the population who are particularly in need of workforce development, and who are particularly hard to reach: mainly women with low levels of education, many of whom are immigrants and/or for whom English is a second language."

Through the Tool
Kit Licensing Program, All Our Kin increases the number and quality of child
care choices available to working parents throughout the region, while ensuring
that young children have high-quality early learning experiences. Between 2000 and 2011, Connecticut lost nearly 34% of
its family child care programs. In New Haven, thanks to All Our Kin’s efforts,
the number of licensed family child care programs increased by nearly 74%
during the same period. The result: more available, affordable quality choices
for children and families.

At the same time, we help providers make better lives for themselves, through increased revenue and opportunities to join the wider community of early childhood education professionals. A 2011 study of All Our Kin’s Tool Kit Licensing program by UCONN’s Center for Economic Analysis found that nearly 60% of participants report earning at least $5,000 more the first year after licensure.

Currently, All Our Kin tracks provider
licensing and regional/statewide trends in licensure, through the Department of
Public Health; provider economic and emotional well-being, through surveys and
job stress inventory tools; and professional commitment, through participation
in training and professional organizations after graduation. In addition, the
University of Connecticut’s Center for Economic Analysis recently conducted an
analysis of the long-term economic effects of the Tool Kit Program on
providers, parents, children and communities. Key results of that study can be
found above.

Examples of Program SuccessHelpOrganization's site specific examples of changes in clients' behaviors or testimonies of client's changes to demonstrate program success. One provider's story: "Four years ago, the factory I was working for closed and I lost my job. I was the director of the children's ministry at my church and a lady there said, "Why don't you work with children?" She mentioned All Our Kin and that they helped her to get her family child care license. So I called them. When I went there I felt right at home working with All Our Kin. They helped with everything and walked me through step by step with so much love. Now, our child care business sustains me and my husband. I try my best to help my children and their parents in every way possible. I accommodate my schedule to their needs and make it convenient for them so that they can go to work with peace of mind and trust that their children will have good care, good teachings, good food and good manners. I love my profession because I am able to help children that have great needs and come from very difficult situations. All Our Kin has changed my life."

The Family Child Care Network offers educational mentorship, professional development, advocacy and leadership opportunities, and a network of relationships with other family child care providers. The Network is a high-touch program built on best practices in early childhood consultation and teacher mentoring. A hallmark of the network is the program visit, in which early childhood consultants visit family child cares to lead model lessons, demonstrate new strategies, and reflect with providers on their work. Consultants bring materials, professional articles, and curriculum ideas, and offer suggestions to enhance children's learning. Providers in the Network also come together for monthly meetings, workshops and trainings, including Child Development Associate training, and an annual professional development conference. All Our Kin offers zero-interest loans and grants, financial management and education training, and marketing and referral opportunities. All services are bilingual.

A wealth of evidence supports the link between high-quality early childhood education and positive educational and social outcomes for children: replacing a low-quality provider with a high-quality one increases a preschooler’s school readiness by 50 percent. The implications of our work are clear: by improving the quality of care in family child care programs, All Our Kin improves educational outcomes and life chances for children.

All Our Kin collects data on the ways in which the Network influences provider practice and the quality of family child care settings. Tools include pre- and post-tests of provider knowledge, observational assessments using tools such as the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale, provider surveys and questionnaires, and data collection on factors such as educational attainment that are known to influence child outcomes.

In addition, we recently partnered with Toni Porter and Juliet Bromer, two of the country's leading researchers in family child care, to expand our portfolio of evaluation tools and conduct a rigorous, two-year external evaluation of our work's impact on both child care quality (year one) and child outcomes (year two).

All Our Kin’s Early Head Start program provides quality child care for eligible infants and toddlers in family child care programs in New Haven. These programs are neighborhood-based, culturally diverse, and offer flexible, full-day programming. Through Early Head Start, family child care providers are paid for the care that they offer, at rates that are higher, and fairer, than those currently available through the state’s child care subsidy program. They also receive materials, supplies, and quality enhancement funds. All Our Kin provides individualized professional development plans, program visits, mentoring, training, and support. All Our Kin also provides comprehensive services to children and families in the EHS program, including access to physical, mental, and oral health services; connections to housing, food, and income supports; and opportunities to build community and develop leadership skills.

All Our Kin directly increases, deepens and enriches the number of resources available to the most vulnerable families and facilitates their access to those resources. Our family advocate counsels parents and connects them to a range of vital community resources; our nurse consultant works with providers and parents to support the physical and mental health of the infants and toddlers in their care; and our partnerships with agencies across New Haven ensure that the vulnerable children our providers serve have access to services throughout the community. By connecting with others in similar situations, parents learn from one another's experiences, share success and provide support through difficulties. Increased knowledge and awareness of their children's developmental benchmarks, needs and supports empowers parents to maximize, sustain and further the work of our talented family child care providers and increase their self-confidence in advocating on behalf of their children.

All Our Kin uses Ages and Stages and Creative Curriculum's child assessment system to track growth and development for children in Early Head Start. All Our Kin tracks several other key indicators of child well-being, including whether the child has a medical home, is up-to-date on a schedule of preventive care, and has any special health conditions or health care needs. A student at the Yale Medical School evaluated the impact of All Our Kin’s Early Head Start program as her senior thesis, and found that the program has significant effects on children's health and well-being. We are also tracking parents' access to services, including job training, child support, and housing support, and changes in employment status and family well-being as a result of the Early Head Start program.

Examples of Program SuccessHelpOrganization's site specific examples of changes in clients' behaviors or testimonies of client's changes to demonstrate program success. All Our Kin's Early Head Start program fills a critical gap left open by Care4Kids, the state child care subsidy program. Because Care4Kids is a work support program, families whose chaotic circumstances do not permit them to work are unable to access the subsidy. For example, we have enrolled a two-year-old who has never been in care because her mother is at home. But her mother is home because of mental illness, and is unable to give the child the positive interactions and supports that she needs. Through Early Head Start, we are able to give the whole family supportive services; the child is blooming in the care of a loving provider during the day, and the mother has an opportunity to seek the help she needs for her own well-being.

Statewide training and technical assistance: All Our Kin provides training and technical assistance to agencies, networks, and associations working to improve the quality and sustainability of family child care in their communities. In 2011 and 2012, in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Social Services, All Our Kin trained thirty-one communities in our coaching and consultation methods, using the Infant Toddler Early Learning Guidelines (ELG) as a tool for building capacity and quality in family child care programs. All Our Kin conducted a new series of ELG trainings in Spanish in fall 2013.

Policy Work: All Our Kin is uniquely positioned to advocate for policies and systems that support and incentivize quality in family child care programs throughout Connecticut and beyond. We have built strong connections with a number of policy organizations and state organizations, who reach out to All Our Kin as the “go-to” agency on family child care issues in Connecticut.

Through our statewide training and technical assistance efforts, All Our Kin builds capacity on two levels: family child care providers in areas not previously served by All Our Kin gain greater knowledge of child development and build skills in working with children, while agencies in those areas learn the fundamentals of All Our Kin’s methods and begin to explore the possibility of building their own family child care networks.

Through our policy work, All Our Kin has shaped the practices and attitudes of both local and statewide administrative agencies that affect our providers. For example, in 2015, All Our Kin's advocacy helped to ensure that family child care providers would be included in the state's new emergency notification system for child care providers. All Our Kin has also encouraged local communities to include family child care providers in professional development opportunities.

Long Term SuccessHelpOrganizations describe the ultimate change(s) that will result from this program. This may be far into the future and represent an ideal state.Before All Our Kin insisted family child care had a “seat at the table,” decision-makers did not consider family child care a serious part of the early childhood landscape. Now, because of All Our Kin, conversations and policy work statewide have shifted to recognize, respect, include, and seek to support family child care and informal caregivers. State-level policymakers actively seek our knowledge and expertise about meaningful ways to support and include family child care providers. For example, as a result of All Our Kin’s advocacy, the state Two Generation Workgroup's recommendations included family child care as a promising two generation strategy. All Our Kin also raised the voices of family child care providers in numerous settings, such as the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Advisory Committee and the Early Learning Standards Workgroup, as well as at the local level.

All Our Kin has been furthering the design of a comprehensive and rigorous evaluation system to determine breadth and depth of programs’ effects in several key areas: family child care providers’ knowledge, practice and attitudes; family child care providers’ mental, physical and economic well-being; children’s health and well-being (including mental health); children’s social-emotional development and self-regulation; parents’ income; job retention; stress levels; families’ access to supportive services. We are working with two leading experts—Toni Porter of the Bank Street College of Education and Juliet Bromer of the Erikson Institute—to conduct a scientific, rigorously validated assessment of our impact.

In addition, we have developed a customized Salesforce database that gives us accurate, real-time data. This data system enables us to evaluate and refine program strategies, steps that are particularly essential as we replicate our work in new communities with different needs.

A recent external evaluation of All Our Kin’s impact found evidence of All Our Kin’s impact on policy reflected in interviews with various community stakeholders:

“All Our Kin has been a great driving force for the issue of family child care and infant-toddler care. They have been very involved with the QRIS program, and making sure that the family child providers are included in this system.”

“All Our Kin has started to influence the policy environment to show that family child care can provide high quality care and it can be an important job creation strategy. This may help to attract more resources, because it will help gain access to economic development funding.”

“When Connecticut was doing the first Race to the Top application, the key issue they focused on was quality care. All Our Kin ensured that the draft included family child care and 0-3 year olds. It was the first time that family child care was included in the dialogue on ECE quality.”

Program Comments

CEO Comments

All Our Kin has a proven track record of success in raising the quality and accessibility of child care in low-income communities. We find the caregivers who serve our youngest and most vulnerable children: women in low-income communities who are committed to giving children high-quality learning experiences. We invest in these caregivers, helping them become skilled early childhood educators, and creating sustainable programs that will serve families for years to come. The model is win-win-win: child care providers build better lives for themselves and their own families; parents can succeed in the workforce, knowing that their children are well cared for; and most important, children have equality of opportunity, and the chance to succeed. All Our Kin increases the supply of quality child care in the community, increases provider revenue, increases the quality of family child care, helps parents enter into the workforce, and is a great economic investment. For more details on the impact of our work, please see the descriptions of our Tool Kit Program and our Family Child Care Network.

CEO/Executive Director

Ms. Jessica Sager

Term StartAug 1999

Emailjessica@allourkin.org

Experience

Jessica received her B.A. from Barnard College and worked as an artist-in-the-schools in New York City before attending Yale Law School, where she was a Coker Teaching Fellow. In 1999, she received her J.D. from Yale. Upon graduation, she was awarded both the Mary McCarthy and Liman Public Interest Fellowships. She founded All Our Kin with Janna Wagner in the fall of 1999. In addition to her work at All Our Kin, Jessica co-teaches, with Janna, a college seminar on “Child Care, Society, and Public Policy” at Yale. She is a trustee of the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, and is active in numerous local, state and national initiatives to improve the quality and sustainability of child care in low-income communities. In 2001, Yale University and the City of New Haven awarded Jessica a Seton Elm-Ivy Award for her efforts to strengthen partnerships and understanding among the New Haven and Yale communities. Ms. Sager’s honors include the US Small Business Administration’s “Women in Business Champion” award (2012), the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame (2013), New Profit’s “Extraordinary Female Social Entrepreneur” designation (2014) and the Roslyn S. Jaffe Award Grand Prize (2015). She is a Ms. Foundation Public Voices Fellow and a 2016 Pahara Aspen Fellow.

Co-CEO

Ms. Janna Wagner

Term StartAug 1999

Emailjanna@allourkin.org

Experience

Janna was born and raised in New Haven and attended the New Haven Public Schools. Janna holds a B.A. in psychology from Yale University and an Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught in the South Bronx through Teach for America, and then joined the staff of the Boston Public Schools' Center for Leadership Development before founding All Our Kin with Jessica Sager in 1999. In 2001, Yale University and the City of New Haven awarded Janna a Seton Elm-Ivy Award for her efforts to strengthen partnerships and understanding among the New Haven and Yale communities. Janna also received Working Women's "Twenty Under Thirty Award" for the most promising young female entrepreneurs. Janna was named one of greater New Haven's "Forty Under 40" by Business Times, a "Rising Star" by Business New Haven, and has been recognized as a “Wonking Class Hero” by Miller-McCune magazine and one of “Twelve Cool People Who Make New Haven a Great Place to Live” by The Hartford Courant. Active in the New Haven community, Janna is an Associate Fellow of Jonathan Edwards College at Yale University and founder of The Group with No Name, a social, civic organization that turns New Haven's residents into citizens. Janna serves as chair of the board of the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation, a sixty-two year old academic enrichment summer program, which brings together Yale and New Haven students on Yale's campus. She is an advisory board member for the Community Fund for Women and Girls, a component fund of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Together with Jessica Sager, she was honored by the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame in 2013 for her work with All Our Kin. In 2014, Janna was selected as a Class of 2014-16 Zero To Three Fellow, and she and Jessica also received the "Living Our Beliefs Within Our Community" Award from the ACES Educational Foundation. Most recently, she was awarded the Yale Jefferson Award and was a Grand Prize recipient of the Roslyn S. Jaffe Awards.

All Our Kin works closely with a range of local, state, and
national organizations. Within Connecticut, our agency has become a model and
resource for others seeking to build family child care capacity and quality. At
the national level, we are one of a handful of organizations successfully
working with family child care programs, and we share strategies, learn from
each other, and work together whenever possible.

In each community that we serve, we build relationships with a wide range of agencies, leveraging as many opportunities and resources as we can. Key partners in each community that we serve include the School Readiness Councils; the schools, including school districts and charter schools; the Family Resource Centers; the libraries; the museums; community colleges; agencies offering resources for families and programs, such as Read to Grow, the Diaper Bank, and local food pantries; agencies serving immigrants and refugees; job training programs; and faith-based organizations.

Affiliations

Affiliation

Year

Success by Six

2005

United Way of Greater New Haven

2002

Awards

Award/Recognition

Organization

Year

Creating Change Award

United Way of Greater New Haven

2008

Region One Leadership Award

National Association for Family Child Care

2006

Official Citation

Board of Aldermen, City of New Haven

2006

All-America City, New Haven (featuring All Our Kin)

National Civic League

2003

Turbo Award (second prize)

Harvard Business School Club of CT

2008

Wonking Class Hero (awarded to All Our Kin's founders)

Miller-McCune Magazine

2009

Top-Rated Job Training Nonprofit

GreatNonprofits.org

2010

Top-Rated Women's Empowerment Nonprofit

GreatNonprofits.org

2010

Soroptimist Ruby Award for Women Helping Women

Soroptimist International, Northeastern Region

2011

Champion in Action

Citizens Bank

2011

Women in Business Champion of the Year for Connecticut

U.S. Small Business Administration

2012

World of Difference 100 Award

The International Alliance for Women

2012

Top-Rated Nonprofit

Greatnonprofits.org

2012

Above and Beyond Award

Regional Youth Adult Social Action Partnership

2013

Top-Rated Nonprofit

Greatnonprofits.org

2013

Education and Empowerment Honorees (Jessica Sager and Janna Wagner)

Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame

2013

Honorees (Jessica Sager and Janna Wagner)

ACES Education Foundation

2014

Two-Generation Network Member

Ascend at the Aspen Institute

2014

Extraordinary Female Social Entrepreneur

New Profit

2014

Fellowship Program, Class of 2014-16

Zero to Three

2014

Susan M. Lewin Women's Leadership Award

The Community Fund for Women & Girls

2014

Grand Prize Recipient

Roslyn S. Jaffe Awards

2015

Champion of Children's Wellbeing

Ashoka Changemakers and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

2016

Board Chair

Paige MacLean

Company AffiliationVice President of Strategic Partnerships, Achievement First

Lead Trustee, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund; Founder, Community Leadership Program

Kica Matos

Director, Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice, Center for Community Change

Wendy Simmons PHD

Assistant Director for Program Development, State Education Resource Center

David Slifka CFA

Vice President - Real Assets, YMCA Retirement Fund

CEO Comments

All Our Kin's Board is composed of 10 voting members and three nonvoting members (representatives from the family child care network); in addition, we have a four-member Advisory Board. The Board convenes four times a year, with an average attendance percentage of 68 percent. Board committees include Development, Budget and Finance, Program and Personnel, Financial/Audit and Strategic Growth. Although All Our Kin’s executive director is not a voting member of the Board, the organization’s directors are present at all meetings and their input is greatly valued by the Board. The Board conducts an annual performance review of the executive director and conducts a quarterly review of All Our Kin’s financial reports. The Board annually reviews progress towards benchmarks aligned with All Our Kin's growth plan.

The Board: articulates values and mission, and sets standards, controls, and policies; ensures that the organization is relevant to the community through processes that monitor the external environment and define vision, direction, and strategy; defines and monitors key areas of performance compared to short- and long-range strategy, assesses results, and ensures that steps are taken for continuous quality improvement; ensures that the financial structure is adequate for current priorities, long-range strategy, and sustainability; ensures that adequate risk management is in place; determines eligibility for Board membership, assures proper recruitment of candidates, elects members and officers, and assures proper orientation and monitoring of Board members; defines and enforces parameters of the Board's work including its committees and the role and performance of the individual Board member; appraises the performance of the executive director and sets compensation; ensures compliance with relevant laws and regulations affecting the organization; asks strategic questions and provides candid advice and perspective.

In years, such as 2016, in which revenue exceeds expenses, the remainder goes towards All Our Kin's cash reserves. Cash reserves protect against fluctuations in cash flow and may also be used to meet unanticipated program needs, create new initiatives or take advantage of new opportunities. Note that many charity watchdog groups and accounting firms recommend that nonprofits have cash reserves sufficient to cover at least three months' operating costs.

Foundation Staff Comments

This organization was required to complete an audit in 2009 because they received a government grant otherwise they are exempt from an audit.

Financial information is input by Foundation staff directly from the organization’s IRS Form 990, audited financial statements or other financial documents approved by the nonprofit’s board. The Foundation has not audited the organization’s financial statements or tax filings, and makes no representations or warranties thereon.

This profile has been read by foundation staff and the organization has completed the fields required by the community foundation and updated their profile in the last year. To see if the organization has received a competitive grant from The Foundation then please go to Statement & Search Criteria Section of the profile.

Related Information

A strong economy begins with a community that supports its people. When you support workforce training, financial literacy and public transportation, you enable individuals and families to work where they live, increasing their chances of economic success.

Educate a child and you change a community. For the child, a good education means better career opportunities and higher lifetime earnings. College graduates enjoy better health and are more inclined to volunteer and vote. For the community, supporting our youths’ educational goals results in a stronger society.